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Issue #6: Student Attention Spans in a Digital World

The catch refers to the constant attempt at multi-tasking and trying to take in many small bits of information all at one time. Students are now wired to gravitate towards instant gratification. As a result, students who live in a digital world have shorter attention spans and are not able to think at a high cognitive level as those who did not grow up in a digital world. I am in a digital classroom all day long and those students still are pretty darn bored. Not to speak down about my classroom, but even activities like eating lollypops and chasing rainbows would bore these students. They are constantly texting, listening to music, and playing video games, even though what I teach is fun, important, productive, and on the computer. When they receive a text, they are unable to do anything, and that includes listening. It is too hard for people in this age group to live in the moment, to the point where I would say that aspect of our society will be lost in the future.

Also, I am keeping my notes from the essential questions here because I am going out of town and plan to do that assignment later. This way I don't have to take any technology with me. Feel free to comment if you want though it will probably be take down when I answer the essential questions.

There are two sides of the debate regarding attention spans in the digital world. However, I believe that student attention spans are significantly shorter the more that they are exposed to technology, especially in a fast-paced society. David Marcovitz provides his belief as to why students' attention spans are shortened as a result of digital technology in their lives. He brings up the Faustian Bargain, which is defined as for every positive benefit, there is an often unseen and very serious downside. He believes that this is shown when even the best educational technology teaches the hidden lesson of short attention. Also, students learn a guess-and-test technology teaches facts at the expense of training students to answer without thinking. 

In the video, from Fox news Mobile: Scientist Study Effects of Technology the professor being interviewed (sorry I didn't catch his name) says that “natural environments are the environments we are adapted to think in.” In other words, when we are surrounded by nature and the world as it was created before the introduction of technology, we are better thinkers and our cognitive skills increase. He also mentions the grand illusion, where we think that were taking in things but we take in a surprisingly little amount of information, about four objects at any one time. We don’t truly multitask because we only do one thing at a time.

Also included was  Book TV: Neil Postman, "Technology" When this video started, my first thought was, "my goodness he is the slowest talker ever." This happened because my short attention spans when watching internet clips did not enjoy having to listen to him word his thoughts in any manner. Neil Postman mentions that life no longer happens in public areas and we are more confined to our homes. He says that we “will one day be able to shop, vote, express political preferences at home.” Which is funny because since 2009 when this video was made, these things have happened. He, like David Marcovits, also mentioned Lincoln-Douglas debates.

The Hulu video, Does the Internet Discourage Deep Thinking?, stated that we’re training our minds with a particular way of thinking so we become good at skimming and scanning. It also said that there is no reward for more contemplative thought, thinking, reading, etc, and we then begin to lose them. I feel that this is very true. In our society, we are encouraged to move and think rapidly, so any type of slowing down isn't being rewarded.

On the other side of the debate is John Davidson who beleives that student attention spans are being helped by technology.  He asks, "Why should we expect our students to live two different lifestyles?" He states that students today can listen to their iPod, chat with friends, research on the Internet, and type a paper all while playing an online game. However I disagree with this because I very often witness students only being able to pay attention to one thing at a time. At best, when students are doing multiple activities using technology, they become too distracted to accomplish any one thing in a meaningful way. They are also unable to do more than one activity for a long period of time, as I have witnessed through my experience as a digital technology teacher. His example of observing a classroom that uses technology and one that uses a traditional lecture method where he states students were "disengaged and disconnected." I disagree with this observation because 

Module 1 Overview

First of all I would like to apologize for not posting the first 2 weeks of class. There was a registration/ payment reimbursement issue that resulted in my getting dropped form the class twice until the issue got resolved. I'm all caught up now and expect to be up to date on all future assignments.

For the first module, I enjoyed attempting to work all the websites that I've heard about but never bothered to access. I had big problems with flickr. It didn't take me long, but I would have expected the site to be more user friendly. As a digital art teacher, I can see this site as a benefit. However due to the problems, I just had the students make their own digital art portfolio pages instead of posting them on flickr in their own account. My flickr web address is incorrect too, since I had a hard time finding what it really was. I think it is

http://www.flickr.com/photos/americasher/

Let me know if it works.

Also, the essential questions did a number on my server. I would have a complete paragraph written before it showed up. I always just ended up typing it in word and posting it from there. Often that didn't work either and I just emailed it to Dr. Cantu. I will repost shortly.

Many of the issues and even videos I can address when teaching. All the issues made me realize my job can be obsolete once I video myself teaching and update it occasionally.

Post #5 – Read about the application of Bloom’s taxonomy to the digital world in Chapter 1 of Technology Applications for the Digital Classroom. Evaluate whether you believe Bloom’s taxonomy is a perfect fit for teaching and learning in the 21st century, as the author contends, or if you believe it is an outdated taxonomy for the digital classroom.

I feel that Bloom's Taxonomy can be used in any form thinking skills, no matter if it's new technology or some other subject for learning that is not yet studied in school. I am a big believer in backwards planning. Using this method, and Bloom's Taxonomy together, I can better teach my students how to create independently using digital media. I use digital media every day in my classroom. Though I am primarily project-based right now, I would like to redesign my curriculum where I take into account tried and true methods such as Bloom's Taxonomy. With the project-based classroom I have right now, I feel that I jump straight to creating. This results in students missing the lower order thinking. As a result, they don't have a strong grasp into the where, when, why, and how of the materials that they learn. I feel that they would comprehend more and know more if they had more of a foundation as to what all this means, where it will take them, why they are doing this, and how to use it.
Digital media can be used to enhance reaching all the levels of thinking in other subject matters as well. Many teachers use digital media, sometimes without knowing. If a teacher were to revert back to classrooms as the were 20 years ago, their teaching methods would change. But even though their teaching methods would change, the students' order of thinking would not change.

Post #4 – Review the YouTube video, “Pay Attention” in Chapter 1 of Technology Applications for the Digital Classroom. Compare and contrast the impact of technology on American society and popular culture with the impact it has had on the American educational landscape.

There were many important facts that were presented in this You tube video. However, it should be noted that many of these sources are dated, like ones from 2003 and 2006. If we reference the previous video from last week's blog post, technology at this time has changed greatly. This is proably why the first few facts about childrens tv watching seemed low.

When the video asked "what do your students create?" My students create a lot every day. However, unlike the facts presented in the video, they still lack the desire to create and challenge themselves. I don't feel that it's because the information and program isn't something that they enjoy because an exit survey at the end of the semester last year had 50% of the stduents saying that this is a career that they're interested in pursuing (5% said so at the beginning of the semester). However, I feel that students are so uninterested in school in genereal. Schools are no longer a place for learning but instead are a place for socializing. That is why it is so hard to pull a cell phone and music player away from students.

And the question "Why not use the technology that our students love to create or teach more effectively?" I feel that this would punish those that don't have the technology or chose not to use it. There are many students who don't have access to this technology. I rely on this technology to teach very frequently. However, I always catch myself reverting back to paper and pencil just as often. Technology melts down, it takes long, it doesn't always work, and it works differently for everybody. As a teacher, there shouldn't be a bigger proponent of the issue, however I just dont agree. In the end, I feel we will revert to paper and pen, no matter how much we push the technology.

Post #3 – Review the YouTube video, “Did You Know” in Chapter 1 of Technology Applications for the Digital Classroom. Discuss how the ubiquitous nature of technology has changed American society and the significance of this unprecedented period in history on your role as a teacher.

I have seen this video in the past but I can't recall where. Some interesting points that I wrote down include:

• 25% of India's population with the highest IQ is greater than the total population of the US, which means India has more honors students than the US has kids
• The top 10 in demand jobs in the US didn't exist in 2004
• The US Dept. of Labor estimates that a person will have 10-14 jobs by the time that they are 38 years old, and that less than half of all people have been working at their current job for 5 years
• 1 in 8 couples married this year met online
• 31 billion searches on google per month
• The number of texts sent each day exceeds the number of people on the planet
• It's predicted by 2049 that a $1000 computer will exceed the computational abilities of the human species.

I guess I should stop making fun of people I know who met online.

Also as a teacher of computer technology, I know that my class and the jobs it creates didn't exist, at least not in the way it does now in 2004. I fit into the 10-14 jobs by 38 (I'm 28) if you count part time jobs throughout my high school and college careers. And I'm sure many in the education field will move districts and schools as well. I picked out the text message fact because I have never seen today's teenagers do anything with such enthusiasm as text messaging. Most are willing to forgo a passing grade so that they can get out one text message during school hours.

I can't wait to show it to my students. This fits in perfectly with my curriculum as a technology intensive class. The biggest issue to do so would be to get past the internet filters. Although when I need this type of assistance I just ask my students how to do it. About half will know the answer.

Post #2 – Identify how technology has been used in classes you have taken as a student, at all levels from elementary through college—providing examples of efficacious and inefficacious use of technology, i.e., good, bad, and ugly use of technology in the classroom.

Technology is used in my room every day. In the past I have always taught drawing and painting as a high school art teacher. Now however, I am teaching digital art 1-3 and digital photo. These are new topics for me to be teaching to students. I took many classes on the subject matter in college, however I have never formally taught it. A coworker of mine who is now at a different high school in the district blessed us with 20 woirking computeres, all with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator installed on each. Photoshop is my specialty and I primarily teach to that. Students complete many assignments throughout the semester and  are given a print portfolio of their work. You can view some of my students' works at

www.flickr.com/photos/americasher

I would have added more but the program only allowed for 200 images unfortunately.

In addition to photoshop, we use Microsoft Publisher to make webpages. That isn't going so well as our old program has issues saving. We also have Digital cameras that students can use and check out. They are given instruction in how to properly use the modes of the camers. Additionally, we have hot lights and a light box (all bought by me with my own money), an LCD projector, an old teacher computer, a color printer, and a scanner. I feel blessed to have all I have, but most items came from out of pocket, donations, and grants. Other schools in the district are not so lucky.

Post #1 – Discuss the role technology has played in each of the following periods of your life: as an elementary student, in middle school and in high school.

I was born in 1983 and I have witnessed many changes in technology over the course of my life. Technology as an elementary student consisted of typewriters, hand held VHS video cameras, cordless phones, and cable TV. Middle school was when computers were introduced. We began with word processers that used MS-DOC (I hope I remember that correctly). We then upgraded to IMac computers that were blue. These were mostly used for programs such as Microsoft Word, as the internet wasn't too popular yet. In high school we had a computer lab with more updated computers, but again, there wasn't that much internet use. Some of the lucky students bagan to have cell phones, I didn't own my first one until college. I myself still feel that I don't know much about technology. I hope this class can help me figure some things out.